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In the very long-feeling seconds that ticked by after they did, I felt a sharp jolt as the magnetic bolt hit the back of the ship, well above where the propellers churned a good twenty feet deeper under the surface.

The cord coiled for a moment in the water, not moving.

Even with the harness, Revik gripped my arm as soon as the mechanism caught.

The line went taut, then began pulling us swiftly up through the water.

Dante had done something to the line so that once it hit, the first thing it did was to pull the line horizontal, before it started bringing us towards the ship. She’d done that to keep us from being dragged into the propellers, but also so we could hide in the turmoil caused by the wake, in the event her interference pulses didn’t work on the sonar swimmers.

Either way, the first thing I felt was a pull in my gut as the cable dragged us up, not forward, bringing us level with where Revik aimed the blunt end of the dart at the midpoint of the stern.

The line brought us directly into the turmoil of the wake.

Only then did I realize just how intense the wake of a big ship really was.

I lowered my head, like Wreg and Revik instructed me to do, partly so I wouldn’t lose my goggles. Gripping the regulator in my teeth so I wouldn’t get that torn out of my mouth as well, I fought to keep from struggling, even as I felt another sickening lurch as the cable started to pull us towards the ship. I felt Revik react to the slight panic in my light, gripping me in his hands as the cable yanked us swiftly through the water, only about five yards under the surface.

It hit me for real, that we were doing this. We were going into Dubai.

I pushed the thought from my mind, gasping and clenching my teeth over the regulator at the speed of the retracting line. I saw Revik look at the distance gauge on the winch?

Right before we smacked into the back of the ship.

We hit hard enough, it halfway knocked the wind out of me.

I gasped as Revik coiled his arm around my waist, holding me protectively against the ship’s stern as he looked down at the main propeller.

The thing looked huge through the infrared, and pretty scary.

It also looked too damned close, even though I’d seen exactly where Revik hit the ship with the dart, and knew we were well out of its range.

On the plus side, the churn from the wake wasn’t an issue where we were now.

We floated in a strange pocket of quiet, protected by the thrust of the ship through the water. The side wakes started somewhere above us, meeting in the middle at least a dozen yards out from the stern of the ship. The churn from the propellers rose up as bubbles well behind us as well, since we hung directly above them.

Revik sent a pulse of warmth to me, to my chest.

I felt the reassurance there, and realized I was still gasping, fighting a fear reaction. Feeling his concern, I forced my breathing back to normal, or as close as I could get, if only so I wouldn’t screw up my oxygen intake and make myself sick.

We just huddled there, not trying to talk, not even with our hands.

Instead we held on to one another, and waited for the ship to reach shore.

Chapter48

Brave New World

Ifelt it, as soon as we passed through the membrane of the construct around Dubai.

I could tell by his tightening hands and fingers on me that Revik felt it, too.

Combat construct shields would do us no good in here, at least for regular walking around. Stanley and Surli told us they’d just get us spotted faster, given the density and pervasiveness of the construct. Our only option was regular infiltration shielding?like what seers used in the day-to-day?coupled with the light cloaks.

More than anything, we had to protect ourselves by staying out of the Barrier.

The more intense, combat-level shielding would be for when we had absolutely no choice but to use the Barrier. If that happened, we’d likely be ID’d by the construct in minutes, if not seconds.

Right now, we couldn’t even use individual shields.